Transcript Chapter 3 Determining Feasibility and managing analysis

Project Management
Systems Analysis and Design, 7e
Kendall & Kendall
©2008 Pearson Prentice Hall
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Learning Objectives
• Understand how projects are initiated and selected
• Define a business problem and determine the
feasibility of a proposed project
• Plan a project by identifying activities and scheduling
them
• Understand how an alternative approach called agile
development balances objectives to manage the
analysis and design process
• Manage team members and analysis and design
activities so the project objectives are met while the
project remains on schedule
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Project Management
Fundamentals
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Project initiation
Determining project feasibility
Activity planning and control
Project scheduling
Managing systems analysis team
members
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Major Topics
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Project Initiation
Determining feasibility
Determining resources
Activity planning and control
• Gantt charts
• PERT diagrams
• Managing analysis and design activities
• The Agile approach
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Project Initiation
• Problems in the organization
• Problems that lend themselves to systems
solutions
• Opportunities for improvement
• Caused through upgrading, altering, or
installing new systems
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Figure 3.1 Checking output, observing employee
behavior, and listening to feedback are all ways to help
the analyst pinpoint systems problems and opportunities
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Problem Definition
• Problem statement
• Paragraph or two stating the problem or opportunity
• Issues
• Independent pieces pertaining to the problem or opportunity
• Objectives
• Goals that match the issues point-by-point
• Requirements
• The things that must be accomplished along with the
possible solutions, and constraints, that limit the
development of the system
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Problem Definition Steps
• Find a number of points that may be
included in one issue
• State the objective
• Determine the relative importance of
the issues or objectives
• Identify which objectives are most
critical
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Selection Of Projects
• Backing from management
• Appropriate timing of project commitment
• Possibility of improving attainment of
organizational goals
• Practical in terms of resources for the system
analyst and organization
• Worthwhile project compared with other ways
the organization could invest resources
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Determining Feasibility
• Defining objectives
• Determining resources
• Operationally
• Technically
• Economically
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Defining Objectives
Many possible objectives exist including:
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Speeding up a process
Streamlining a process
Combining processes
Reducing errors in input
Reducing redundant storage
Reducing redundant output
Improving system and subsystem integration
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Feasibility Impact Grid (FIG)
• A feasibility impact grid (FIG) is used to
assess the impact of any improvements
to the existing system
• It can increase awareness of the
impacts made on the achievement of
corporate objectives
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Figure 3.3 An analyst can use a feasibility impact grid to
show how each system component affects process objectives
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Figure 3.4 An analyst can use a feasibility impact grid to show
how each system component affects corporate objectives
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Figure 3.5 The three key elements of feasibility
include technical, economic, and operational
feasibility
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Technical Feasibility
• Can current technical resources be
upgraded or added to in a manner that
fulfills the request under consideration
• If not, is there technology in existence
that meets the specifications
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Economic Feasibility
• Economic feasibility determines whether
value of the investment exceeds the time and
cost
• Includes:
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Analyst and analyst team time
Business employee time
Hardware
Software
Software development
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Operational Feasibility
• Operational feasibility determines if the
human resources are available to
operate the system once it has been
installed
• Users that do not want a new system
may prevent it from becoming
operationally feasible
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Activity Planning And Control
• Planning includes:
• Selecting a systems analysis team
• Estimating time required to complete each task
• Scheduling the project
• Control includes:
• Comparing the plan for the project with its actual
evolution
• Taking appropriate action to expedite or
reschedule activities
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Estimating Time
• Project is broken down into phases
• Further project is broken down into tasks or
activities
• Finally project is broken down into steps or
even smaller units
• Time is estimated for each task or activity
• Most likely, pessimistic, and optimistic
estimates for time may be used
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Figure 3.6 Beginning to plan a project by
breaking it into three major activities
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Figure 3.7 Refining the planning and scheduling of
analysis activities by adding detailed tasks and
establishing the time required to complete the tasks
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Project Scheduling
• Gantt Charts
• Simple
• Lends itself to end user communication
• Drawn to scale
• PERT diagrams
• Useful when activities can be done in
parallel
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Figure 3.8 Using a two-dimensional Gantt chart
for planning activities that can be accomplished
in parallel
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Figure 3.12 A completed PERT diagram
for the analysis phase of a systems project
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PERT Diagram Advantages
• Easy identification of the order of
precedence
• Easy identification of the critical path
and thus critical activities
• Easy determination of slack time
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Timeboxing
• Timeboxing sets an absolute due date
for project delivery
• The most critical features are developed
first and implemented by the due date
• Other features are added later
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Project Due Dates
• Estimating models
• Costar
• Construx
• Function point analysis
• Helps the analyst quantitatively estimate
the overall length of software development
efforts
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Function Point Analysis
• Count components
• Rate each component’s complexity
• Assign complexity numbers
• Arrive at a subtotal
• Multiply by adjustment factor
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Based on Five Main Components
of Computer Systems
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External inputs
External outputs
External queries
Internal logical files
External interface files
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Figure 3.15 Function point counts can be
accomplished in five steps
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Staffing Requirements
• Choice of software can influence the
amount of effort that goes into system
development
• It is not true that the more people
assigned to a task, the faster it will get
done
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Managing Risk
• 30 percent of all projects succeed
• 20 percent fail
• 50 percent finish, but are either late,
over budget, or offer fewer features
than originally promised
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Figure 3.16 Calculating the extra time required
to ensure that a project is completed on time
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Managing Analysis and Design
Activities
• Team management
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Assembling a team
Team communication strategies
Project productivity goals
Team member motivation
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Assembling a Team
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Shared value of team work
Good work ethic
Honesty
Competency
Readiness to take on leadership based on
expertise
• Motivation
• Enthusiasm for the project
• Trust of teammates
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Communication Strategies
• Teams often have two leaders:
• One who leads members to accomplish
tasks
• One concerned with social relationships
• The systems analyst must manage:
• Team members
• Their activities
• Their time and resources
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Project Productivity Goals and
Motivation
• Successful projects require that
reasonable productivity goals for
tangible outputs and process activities
be set
• Goal-setting helps to motivate team
members
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Ecommerce Project
Management
Ecommerce and traditional software
project management differences:
• The data used by ecommerce systems is
scattered across the organization
• Ecommerce systems need a staff with a
wide variety of skills
• Partnerships must be built externally and
internally well ahead of implementation
• Security is of utmost importance
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Project Failures
• Project failures may be prevented by:
• Training
• Experience
• Learning why other projects have failed
• Project charter
• Describes in a written document what the
expected results of the systems project are
and the time frame for delivery
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Agile Development
An innovative philosophy and
methodology comprised of systems
development practices, techniques,
values, and principles intended for use
in developing systems in a dynamic way
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Figure 3.17 The analyst can control the time,
cost, quality, and scope of the project to balance
the activities
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Agile Core Practices and Roles of
the Agile Approach
There are four Agile practices:
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A short release time
Working a 40-hour week
Having an onsite customer
Pair programming
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Figure 3.19 Roles in the Agile Development process
include members from inside of the development team
as well as at least one onsite customer
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The Planning Game
• The planning game defines rules to help
formulate the development team and
customer relationship
• Limits uncertainty
• Two players: the development team
and the business customer
• Customers decide what to tackle first
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Development Process for an Agile
Project
• Agile projects are interactive and incremental
• The five Stages of Agile development are:
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Exploration
Planning
Iterations to the first release
Productionizing
Maintenance
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Figure 3.21 The five stages of the agile modeling
development process show that frequent iterations are
essential to successful system development
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Summary
• Project management fundamentals
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Project initiation
Determining project feasibility
Activity planning and control
Project scheduling
Managing systems analysis team members
• Problem definition
• Issues of the present system
• The objective for each issue
• The requirements that must be included in all
proposed systems
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Summary (Continued)
• Project selection
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Backed by management
Commitment of resources
Attains goals
Practical
Important
• Feasibility
• Operational
• Technical
• Economic
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Summary (Continued)
• Project planning
• Gantt charts
• PERT
• Function point analysis
• Team management
• Ecommerce projects
• The Agile approach
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